Sat 8/27

   This is our fourth day on the road.  Left Minnesota on Wed.  Got as far as Murdo, SD, a small town about halfway across on I-90.  Already the land was quite different.  Gone were the farms with their corn fields and soybean fields.  Gone were the large groves of trees that marked a town or even a farm.  The land now was open and virtually treeless.  The fields were hay or sunflowers.  Yes, we passed many large fields of sunflowers, their bright yellow faces pointing at the sun.
    Thursday we continued through SD, turning south just as we entered Rapid City, which is on the edge of the Black Hills.  I remember coming here for vacation when Dad had a weeks vacation. There are an abundance of family activities to do here, but I always thought of it as a "tourist trap". The flood of billboards along the highway did nothing but emphasize the fact.  Reptile Gardens, Blah Blah Cave, Dah Dah Adventure Park.  They seem to drown out the scenic beauty of the hills themselves.
   At Rapid Cithy we turned south on Hwy 79, to Hot Springs.  We spent nearly two hours at "The Mammoth Site" where they have bones of both Wooly Mammoths and Columbian Mammoths.

From Hot Springs we headed west into Wyoming, through Lusk, unto I-25 for a few miles to Casper, and then west again on Hwy 20/26.  Camping spots did not appear so we spent the night at a rest stop at the edge of an almost dead town of Shoshoni.  Breakfast and fuel in Riverton and continued west following the Wind River as it went from a large following body to a rather small stream as we climbed up the mountains.  It was a great road but we climbed and climbed.  The BRT did a great job of getting up the pass.  The summit was 9600+ ft.  The truck alone has been to 9700 on Steens mountain in eastern Oregon, but this is the highest the rig has been.  The uphill and downhill were both very enjoyable.  Second gear on the steep parts but still ok.

After getting down the mountain we drove to Moran Junction and turned south towards Grand Tetons National Park.  A fire burning in the area of the southern border of Yellowstone has the highway from the Tetons to Yellowstone closed right now.  So our exploring will be around here.  Looking for wildlife and then there are those fabulous mountains!

A moose having lunch.

       

Flood

   Wednesday we drove 45 miles east to Owatonna.  We checked into the Riverside RV park about Noon.  It is located on the Straight River which is normally under 10 foot wide.   It was higher because the area experienced 5 inches a few days before.
    Our campsite was spread with pea-gravel which probably covered any mud that was there.  The tires sunk in some but it was ok.  Our area was a low area so water was standing all around.  I shoveled small trenches to help the water drain away.  Overnight most of the standing sunk in or moved elsewhere. The next day we had more rain.  Friday night the rain started in earnest about 9pm.  It continued as we went to bed.
     About midnight, R woke me up saying "There's lights outside."  When we looked out I saw that the tenters camped out by the river were packing up.  I got up.  I walked over to the camp host trailer and talked with them.  They were concerned.  The owners were concerned.  Both were driving around with their golf carts.   Finally it was decided that the river was going to flood and it was time to telll everyone to leave.
    It was 1:15am when I opened the trailer door and said, "Hey R, get dressed, we're leaving.  I was walking in 3-4 inches of water as I got the trailer ready to hitch.  Soon the slides came in, the back legs were cranked up, I backed the truck under the hitch.  Once hitched, I moved the rig forward to get it off the boards that the tires were on, threw them into the bed and we were ready to go.
    At 2 am we pulled out of the campground and unto the paved county road.  We drove for w hours and parked in front of R's sisters house in Fairmont at 3:45am.
    Saturday afternoon we got an email from Riverview RV with an update on the flood.  At that time there was 3 ft of water where we were parked and 1 ft at the gate to the highway entrance.  They offered free camping for the nights missed for 2017 or refunds to those from outside the area.  A classy thing to do.

Amber Lake

Amber Lake is one of the five lakes that Fairmont is built around.  They make the town a pleasant place to live.  When we are staying at family in Fairmont, I walk the boys down to the lake every morning and evening.  The other day I noticed that the sign for Amber Lake has another smaller sign underneath it.  It was interesting to read about the connection between this Lake and the National Park Service.

Goodbye Mankato

   We have moved on from Mankato.  It's a nice town. It has all of the amenities. Lots of shopping.  lots of parks.  A couple of colleges including MSU.  Minnesota State Mankato.  We visited the campus.  It was weird.  Both R and I graduated from this institution, but it wasn't MSU.  It was Mankato State.  I recognized a couple of buildings but that was it.  It has been nearly 50 years and the changes have made this a different school.  It felt like we were on a foreign campus.
    Getting back to Mankato, it was where I grew up.  The town is still here but, like the MSU campus, many changes have been made.  In the sixties, Front Street was a viable active retail area.  I remember "Crazy Days"  when items were on tables on the sidewalk and crowds walked in the street to check them out.  Now the downtown is not much of a retail area.at all.  So much for progress.
    We left Mankato on Wednesday and traveled about 45 miles east to Owatonna.  We are here until Saturday morning when we will drive to Fairmont.  During these days we are visiting old friends.  Friends from high school and college.  It is great renewing relationships.
     The heat has broken, at least for a while, by thunder storms.  The storms are exciting.  Our area of Oregon does not have thunder storms, so we really enjoy the thunder and lightning.  It's fabulous!!

The Irish Fair

    The Irish Fair is held every August at Harriet Island park on the Mississippi River in St Paul.  The skyline of the city is across the water.  Lots of wonderful Irish music on at least three venues. (You cannot help but clap or tap your feet.)   Many Irish dance schools were there to show their skills.  It is always fun watching young kids performing, doing their best.
   Lots of green.  Green t-shirts.  Lots of kilts.  Lots of plaid fabric.  Tons of booths selling all sorts of items that you just can't be without.  The fair runs for three days and is totally free.  It is totally run by volunteers.  Hooray for volunteers!!
     The location is spacious and grassy.  People flock in and so parking is difficult.  We parked in an industrial area for $5 but it was at least a half-mile from the site which was difficult for R but she did it without complaining like usual.
    I would have liked to hear the final performing group last night, Gaelic Storm< but we still had to drive to Fairmont (150 miles) so we needed to get on the road.  I bought one of their CDs to play on the way south instead,

    If you ever get a chance to attend the Irish Fair, don't miss it.

Lanesboro

Buffalo Bill Days parade in Lanesboro, Minn.  This is in the hilly area of SE Minnesota. It has been called "the Land the Glaciers Forgot".   It is also Amish country.  It is quite common to see a buggy traveling the highway shoulders.    

More Minnesota Observations

   Did I say humidity?  Boy, I know why I decided not to come back here after I left the Marines.  I hate the sticky body feeling.  I showered this morning and could do it again and it's still morning.  I can't imagine what it would be like being in the South.  Maybe to lessen the effect, the weather people do not tell you what the humidity is.  We talk about dew point.  I have gotten from watching the weather on the news, the higher the dew point, the higher the humidity.  Why don't they just say "the humidity is...."?   Also they combine the dew point and temperature and get something called the "heat index".  Evidently it is the summer equivalent of the winter wind chill.  It doesn't help.

   Corn    Drive around the country and you see corn.  Corn everywhere.  Because of the corn and ecology, ethanol plants have been built in the area.  There are two plants near Fairmont, one for corn and one for soy beans.  Most gas stations have an ethanol pump.  The price of ethanol is about $.50 a gallon less than unleaded.  The trade-off is that ethanol does not burn as hot so fuel mileage is less.   I'm not sure which is a better deal.

   Neatness.  Driving around Mankato and Fairmont and driving around the country, you do not see junk.  You do not see yards filled with trash or abandoned vehicles.  It is a good thing.

   Rust.   If you drive a vehicle in winter around here, you will get rust.  They put salt products on the roads to help the ice melt.  In our country sand or pumice is spread.  Of course Oregon does not have the weather that Minnesota has.  Cold.  Snow.   The result is that cars rust.  Around the wheel wells, Pick-up tailgates.  I would not buy a used car from here.   Collector cars are put away for the winter.

   Central Day Time   Two hours different from the West Coast.  Also, the network programs are broadcast an hour earlier.  Not a bad thing if you go to bed early,  At home and in the trailer I dont care because I have a satellite, so I record the programs I like and watch them when I choose.

Soy Beans.  The trees in the distance are farm sites.

Minnesota Observations

Minnesota is green.
     Lots of grass.  Lawns are green and nicely mowed.  Farms have huge mowed grassy areas.

     Lots of trees.   Trees everywhere.  Mostly deciduous.  Driving in the country the farms are surrounded by groves of trees.  I remember going to friends or relatives farms and playing in their "woods", as we called them.  It was great fun!  There were trees to climb in and always some old farm machinery to sit on.

    Corn.   Oh my gosh!    Miles and miles and miles of cornfields.  Some soybeans too, but mostly corn.  As far as the eye can see in all directions.  Every town is marked by a water tower with its name on it and a grain elevator.  You know you are getting close to another town when you see one or the other or both in the distance welcoming you.

   Bumpy roads.   Highways are bumpy.  City streets are bumpy.  Neighborhood streets are bumpy.  The highways have expansion joints in them to handle the extremes in temperature, I guess.  But the weather takes a toll on the roads.  Driving on some of the roads gives you  a pattern.  Thump,  dot, thump, dot, thump.  It's a sound and a feeling at the same time.  It tries to lull you to sleep until you hit the occasional "big one"  that jar you and your car's suspension system.

   Bugs.     I got more bugs on the front of my rig on the drive from the South Dakota border to Fairmont (100 miles) than I did on the entire trip from Canby to Texas, to South Lake Tahoe, to South Dakota.  I have been happily surprised by the lack of mosquitoes.  They haven't been bad at all.  Other bugs have made up for their lack.  Lots of flying bugs.  I had forgotten about Cicadas.  We used to call them Heat Bugs.  You don't see them, you hear them.  It's kind of a buzzing sound.

   Humidity!!   Yikes!  I had forgotten how I hate it.  Hate it.  Hate it.   The weather guys don't talk about relative humidity, they talk about dew point, whatever that means.  It isn't constant.  It comes and goes.  This week-end and today was great.  The middle of last week was crappy and the upcoming mid-week sounds "not so good".   Think dry.